A Different Kind of Genius
by Isolation and Tea
Summary: Matsuda was a lot smarter than any of the task force realized. Matsuda perspective, hints of L/Light, One-shot


**_Disclaimer: _**If I owned _Death Note_, chances are I wouldn't be writing fan fiction about it.

**_A Different Kind of Genius  
_**_One-shot  
_by: Eternity Bites

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Matsuda was a lot smarter than any of the task force realized. He wasn't a genius of L or Light's caliber. Heck, he was probably the least intelligent member of the task force. But Matsuda just wasn't a book smart kind of guy.

No what Matsuda was good at was emotions. That's why he joined the NPA. He always had the uncanny ability to tell what someone was feeling. But despite his mastery over the ability to discern how others felt he had always been socially awkward. Matsuda theorized this was because he spent so much time trying to unravel others that he didn't think before he opened his mouth.

It was because of Matsuda's genius that he was the first, and likely only, person to notice that something wasn't quite right about L and Light's relationship. After the ending of Light's fifty day confinement and Ryuzaki's test was when Matsuda noticed that there seemed to be some sort of tension between the world's three greatest detectives and the prodigal son.

At first he thought that maybe it had something to do with being chained together for an indefinite amount of time but that notion was soon discarded when Matsuda noticed that Light hadn't put up much of a fight. Of course that could've just been because Light wanted to prove he wasn't Kira but Matsuda, for some reason, doubted that was the case.

The next time he detected a hint of whatever it was between L and Light had been during Light's date with Misa-Misa. During the entire visit the prodigy never once directly addressed Misa. He only sat back and nodded or replied whenever asked a question. Light also seemed to carry an irritated air, which he guessed the rest of the task force contributed to the fact that L _was_ sitting in on their date.

That was when several facts, which had been stored away, rose to the front of Matsuda's mind. The first was Light's complete lack of interest in anything pertaining to relationships. Yes he dated casually, Matsuda noted, but he didn't often call the girl for a second date. Another was of the many times L would calmly tug Light over just as Misa was about to glomp him citing that 'Light-kun was very busy and needed to focus on the case.' The final was the college student's complete disinterest in anything Misa did, be it shoving her boobs in his face or pressing her body against his.

It was then Matsuda decided that Light was possibly asexual, or gay. After piecing all of that together, this admittedly hadn't taken him that long, Matsuda tuned back into the three-way date. As he observed Light's offhand dismissal to Misa's suggestion of sex in order to focus on what the greatest detective was saying Matsuda concluded that Light was most likely attracted to L.

Somehow, Matsuda didn't find himself entirely shocked by this. Actually it made quite a bit of sense. Light's intelligence was matched only by L and he could challenge Light in ways that Misa never could so it seemed completely reasonable that Light was interested in L.

Shortly after this conclusion he realized Light's feelings weren't at all one-sided when L confided that he had been in a state of depression. It didn't seem like L to carelessly disclose his emotions to anyone so that meant that he must've trusted Light a great deal. After witnessing their conversation and Light's obvious concern over Ryuzaki's wellbeing Matsuda decided, quite correctly too, that there was more than friendship going on between the two geniuses's.

In the coming weeks whenever L and Light would go off for a bathroom break and the two detectives would come back slightly disheveled, not that you could really tell with L as he always looked a slob, Matsuda would always give a sort of smug grin and then turn back to whatever menial job L had set him to do.

None of the task force took note of their disarrayed clothes or slightly tinged cheeks. Well no one but Matsuda, because Matsuda always had the uncanny ability to tell what someone was feeling.

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_Just a little something that popped into my head for absolutely no reason and wouldn't leave. I like Matuda, despite his admitted uselessness, and I felt that he was more than he appeared. It's my first Death Note fan fiction so hopefully it wasn't to bad. Reviews?_


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